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Set against the backdrop of a child murder in 1940’s era Chicago, three teenagers’ lives are about to change dramatically. From different sides of the tracks, Zane and Fred forge a bond through their shared love of cartooning. But Fred quickly realizes that Zane has a dark undercurrent, especially when he violates Maizy, the sturdy but naïve working class neighborhood girl whose lack of self-esteem and lifelong love for Zane overwhelm her judgment. Meanwhile, Zane’s father harbors a shocking secret that Maizy and Fred discover. The events that follow lead all three teens to make difficult, life-changing decisions. Told with compassion and honesty from each teen’s perspective, Something Terrible Happened on Kenmore unflinchingly examines love and loss, friendship and sexuality, all significant factors on the path to becoming an adult.
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"The stories in Swimming Lesson are audacious, mystical, poignant, ferocious. They are about ordinary people, mostly young and female, at a pivotal time in their lives where there is no turning back and the future is fraught with ambiguity. For adult readers."
Lois Naughtly, Ghost in the Looking Glass.
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“Miracles and lights, lights and miracles. Hardships and miracles and lights. Marci Stillerman’s Nine Spoons is a...book unlike any you have encountered in the past. Oma tells her grandchildren the true story of the children’s Menorah, lovingly crafted, and kept secret in a concentration camp during World War Two. This is a tale that begs to be told... think of the light it might bring to your children’s minds and the miracle of a family sitting together, talking about this story and what it means.”
Chinaberry Books -- Holiday 1999
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Help me finish the story!
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RECENT REVIEWS
WestSide Books Review January 2010
Grade 9 and up; Told from alternating perspectives, this novel captures a snapshot of life in depression era Chicago. The story opens with the police looking for the hand of a five year old girl who has been raped and murdered. Each successive narrator sheds a little more light on the circumstances, allowing readers to guess the identity of the perpetrator before it is revealed at the end. Zane, the minister's son, spends his days "slumming," haning with his friends from schoo, predominantly immigrants who live on Kenmore Street. Maizy, a heavy girl with low self-esteem, is wholly in love with him, even though she's not sure that their one sexual encounter wasn't a rape and she becomes pregnant. Fred is a friend to everyone, the moral center of the story. This tight narrative is evocative of Sharon Draper's or Angela Johnson's work, but the historical setting will draw reluctant readers into a whole new era. -Leah Krippner, Harlem High School in Machenney Park, Il.
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(an excerpt from Marci's Bio)
Congress Street is haunted
By sweet sad melodies,
A woven tale in music,
Unfinished rhapsodies
 I started my writing life with those words published in Franklin P. Adams' A Line of Type or Two column of the Chicago Tribune when I was nine. It was a poem about Frank Ritter, a blind violinist who, day after day in all seasons offered his music to those who passed his corner on Congress and Michigan Avenues.
As soon as I learned to read, I decided to be a writer. When I was 10, my father bought me a Royal Typewriter and I took off. Jottings became stories and poems, and laboriously typed pages overflowed all the drawers and spaces of my bedroom.
Reading and writing were my childhood passions. I didn't play with dolls, roller skate, ride my bike. I had few friends. My German immigrant parents didn't know what to make of their daughter, just a year younger than her brother, a regular kid.
Read Marci's full bio here...
Marci's Contact Information
e-mail: marciess@aol.com
phone: 760-346-7956
www.MarciStillerman.Com
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